I just embarked on my first batch of miso. I followed the recipe for red and white miso in the book (I made one crock of each), and all the preparation went fine. Only after I put it up did it occur to me that maybe I made a mistake with the koji.

I bought the koji at my local Japanese market and it came in a tub. The rice was dehydrated. Was I supposed to rehydrate the rice before I used it? Of course this never occurred to me as I was preparing the miso, and it seems like there would be enough liquid from the beans and the pot liquor I added, but now that it's out of my hands I'm having doubts.

What have you guys done in your miso adventures? Did I make a mistake or am I okay? Any input would be appreciated.

Thanks for the advice. I actually went off the Recipe in [i]Wild Fermentation[i] (ignorantly) thinking my koji was the only type of koji there is. So it will certainly be a little light on liquid. I suppose it's probably not too late to add some water to the white miso, which is only a couple days in. The red miso is more like a month in, but it is already spitting off a little tamari, so I might just wait and see with that one. Thanks again!

If you're a little light on liquid, I think worst case scenario is your miso will end up a little saltier than expected and ferment a little slower. Might give these misos just a little extra time to develop.